All Blacks go on offensive

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Taine Randell, All Black captain in 1999, expects New Zealand to reach the final, he tells David Hands, but their public, he adds, expect them to win the trophy

STILL THEY come, these individuals of quality from New Zealand who have decided for themselves, or through force of circumstance, that their rugby future lies away from the Land of the Long White Cloud. How recent seems the association of Taine Randell and Wayne Smith in the All Black cause, Randell as captain of the 1999 World Cup squad and Smith as tactical analyst.

Now Smith coaches Northampton and Randell is the most recent arrival at Saracens, tempted by the chance to live and play in London, away from what he acknowledges can sometimes be the suffocating rugby atmosphere at